Social Unemployment Benefit Calculator (Portugal)
The net underneath the contributory unemployment benefit, for those who miss its 360 days of contributions or have exhausted it. Enter your household and its income to see whether you pass the means test, how much you receive and for how long.
The household is counted on an equivalence scale: 1 for you, 0.7 for each other adult and 0.5 for each minor. The income to enter is the total monthly gross income of everyone in the household, including you.
The initial benefit is for someone who misses the qualifying period for the contributory benefit but worked 180 days in the past year. The subsequent one is for someone whose contributory benefit has run out. The long-term support comes after the social benefit itself runs out.
With a reference income of €370.37 per person, below the €429.70 limit, the household meets the means test and the estimated benefit is €537.13 a month.
How this figure is reached
| Household weighting (1 + 0.7 per adult + 0.5 per minor) | 2.7 |
| Reference income per person | €370.37 |
| Means-test limit (80% of the IAS) | €429.70 |
| Means test | Met |
| Reference amount, with a household (the IAS) | €537.13 |
| Monthly benefit | €537.13 |
| Daily value (monthly ÷ 30) | €17.90 |
| Table 1 period | 450 days (420 + 30 added) |
| Period granted | 450 days |
| Estimated total over the period | €8,056.95 |
The initial social benefit requires 180 days of employed work with salary registration in the 12 months before unemployment, or 120 days where a fixed-term contract ends or the employer ends the probation period.
There is a second limit this calculator does not check: the household's movable assets (deposits, shares, bonds, savings certificates) may not exceed €128,911.20.
Educational estimate: it does not apply the full legal definition of household income (the official Condição de Recursos guide does), does not check assets, does not apply the safeguard rule or Table 2 for claims before April 2012, and does not cover the lump-sum payment for a self-employment project.
This calculator provides educational estimates and does not constitute financial advice.
What it is, and when it applies
The social unemployment benefit is the Social Security payment for someone who is unemployed and either does not qualify for, or has exhausted, the ordinary contributory benefit. It comes in two versions. The initial one is for someone who misses the contributory qualifying period of 360 days of work in the last 24 months but meets a shorter one: 180 days of employed work with salary registration in the 12 months before unemployment, or just 120 days where unemployment follows the end of a fixed-term contract or the employer ending the contract during the probation period. The subsequent one is for someone who received the contributory benefit to the end and is still unemployed and registered with the employment centre. In both cases there is one decisive difference from the contributory benefit: here the household income is assessed.
The means test, step by step
This is where most claims are decided, and the calculation is not what it looks like. You do not add up the income and divide by the number of people: each member of the household carries a different weight. The applicant counts as 1, each other adult as 0.7 and each minor as 0.5. Add the monthly income of the whole household and divide by that weighting. The result, the reference income per person, may not exceed 80% of the IAS, which is €429.70 in 2026. In Social Security’s own worked example, a family of a mother, a father and two minor children has a weighting of 2.7 and, on €1,000 of monthly income, a reference income of €370.37, below the limit. A larger household therefore helps you meet the condition.
How much you get: a flat amount, not a percentage
Unlike the contributory benefit, which is 65% of the reference remuneration, the social benefit is a flat amount indexed to the IAS and does not depend on what you earned. Someone with a household receives the full IAS, €537.13 a month in 2026. Someone living alone receives 80% of the IAS, €429.70. There is a single brake: the benefit can never exceed the net value of the reference remuneration, because the law does not allow a benefit higher than what you earned at work. If you earned €500 a month, the net reference remuneration is about €445 after the 11% Social Security contribution, and that is what you receive, even with a household.
The reference remuneration is not the contributory one
This technical detail is worth understanding, because it leads to wrong sums. For the contributory benefit the reference remuneration comes from the first 12 of the last 14 months and includes the holiday and Christmas bonuses. For the social benefit it starts from the salaries registered in the 6 oldest of the last 8 months before unemployment, added together and divided by 180 days. It is a plain average of six months of registered salary, with no uplift for the bonuses. So in the salary field, enter the monthly average of what was actually registered in those six months.
For how long
The initial social benefit lasts exactly as long as the contributory benefit would have: between 150 and 540 days depending on age and on the months with salary registration since the last spell of unemployment, plus an increase of 30 days up to age 39, 45 from 40 to 49 and 60 from 50, for each complete 5 years of salary registration in the last 20. The subsequent one is shorter and depends on age: under 40 you receive half that period; from 40 you receive the whole of it. There is one exception no calculator can honestly apply: if the previous contributory benefit came from the long-career safeguard rule, from age 40 you receive half the time you actually received it for, rather than the table period.
When all of that ends: the long-term support
Once the social unemployment benefit runs out, initial or subsequent, one last payment remains: the support for the long-term unemployed. It is worth 80% of the last social unemployment benefit you received and is paid for 180 days. It is not claimed straight away: 180 days must pass from the end of the social benefit, and the claim must be made in the 90 days that follow that wait, or the entitlement is lost. The same requirements stay in place: being involuntarily unemployed, available for work, registered with the employment centre and within the means test.
What this calculator does not check
Two things, and either can stop a claim that looks viable here. The first is movable assets: if the household holds bank deposits, shares, bonds, savings certificates or fund units above 240 times the IAS, €128,911.20 in 2026, there is no entitlement whatever the income. The second is the legal definition of income, which is broader than salary: it takes in annual gross employment income with the holiday and Christmas bonuses, self-employment income, pensions, almost all social benefits, and income imputed to assets, such as 1/12 of 5% of the value of financial assets or of property other than the home you live in. Social Security’s Condição de Recursos guide is the source that closes that list.
Worked example
Joana lost her job at 35 without reaching the 360 days of contributions the ordinary unemployment benefit requires, but she worked 30 months over her career and more than 180 days in the past year, so she claims the initial social unemployment benefit. She lives with her partner and two minor children, and the whole household earns €1,000 a month. The weighting is 1 for Joana, 0.7 for her partner and 0.5 for each child, so 2.7. The reference income is €1,000 divided by 2.7, that is €370.37 per person, below the €429.70 limit: the means test is met. Because she has a household, the amount is the full IAS, €537.13 a month. She earned €900 a month, whose net value of €801 is above the benefit, so the reference-remuneration brake does not apply. At 35 with 30 months of salary registration the table gives 420 days, plus 30 days for the 6 years of registration in the last 20: 450 days in all, or 15 months. That comes to about €8,056.95 in total. Living alone on the same income, she would receive €429.70 a month instead of €537.13.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the social unemployment benefit in 2026?
What is the difference between the unemployment benefit and the social unemployment benefit?
How is household income calculated for the means test?
How long does the social unemployment benefit last?
Can I receive the social benefit if I have savings?
What do I receive after the social unemployment benefit ends?
Do I have to prove my income every year?
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Sources
- Guia Prático: Subsídio Social de Desemprego, inicial ou subsequente ao Subsídio de Desemprego, e Apoio aos Desempregados de Longa Duração · Instituto da Segurança Social
- Decreto-Lei n.º 220/2006, de 3 de novembro: regime jurídico de proteção social na eventualidade de desemprego · Diário da República
- Portaria n.º 480-A/2025/1: valor do Indexante dos Apoios Sociais (IAS) para 2026 · Diário da República
Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-08